Software installation opinions needed

[Robert Claeson]

In a recent article stevedc at syma.sussex.ac.uk (Stephen Carter) writes:

...
>Past operating systems I have dealt with (no names, no pack drill) have
>been what I think of as mature commercial operating systems.  They have
>been able to cope with the rigours and realities of being used and
>installed and maintained by ordinary operations staff.  (Not by Nobel
>candidates).

>2.  We are having trouble at present with a printer that does not do a
>CR after a LF (or vice versa!).  Now we know that the control on this is
>buried in getty and termcap, but it is all in terms of bit flags that
>then have to be entered as fs:octalnumbers.

Sounds like you're using some kind of Berklix UNIX-alike. Well, I'll bite...

We recently installed a system at a site where the DP manager had previously
only been using "commercial" systems like VMS, Primos, AOS/VS, MVS and
the like. He first ordered BSD 4.3. From a University, he'd heard that
it was the only reasonable choice. He never felt comfortable with it,
muttering about "... damn UNIX...unfriendly...stupid...". So we then
suggested him to try a heavily enhanced version of System V Release 3.2
(well, who sells a pure System V these days? Not even AT&T themselves)
instead. He agreed and have been using it since then. He says that it
is more orthogonal. He can build on past experience from other commands
in the system, he says. So if you're not satisfied with your Berklix
system, try System V for a change. I'm not saying that it is better over-all
but just that it might happen that it suits your needs better.

As for me, I use both, and Mach on top of that.

-- 
Robert Claeson                  |Reasonable mailers: rclaeson at erbe.se
ERBE DATA AB                    |      Dumb mailers: rclaeson%erbe.se at sunet.se
                                |  Perverse mailers: rclaeson%erbe.se at encore.com
These opinions reflect my personal views and not those of my employer.